Fun Facts • March 15, 2024

No Omens

by Angie Hoskins

Shakespeare famously wrote, “beware the Ides of March” in reference to March 15^th.

However, when it comes to luxury real estate, there doesn’t seem to be any bad news on the horizon.

Instead, properties priced over $1 million are certainly on the upswing.

So far this year, there have been 26% more sales of luxury properties in Larimer County compared to early 2023.

And in Weld County, luxury property sales are up 36%.

Strength in the luxury market is certainly an indicator of the overall confidence in Northern Colorado real estate.

Fun Facts • March 8, 2024

Leap Year

by Angie Hoskins

The statistic that is leaping so far in 2024 is inventory.

Northern Colorado is seeing a big uptick in number of homes for sale.

However, it is not an alarming amount and is still a ‘Seller’s Market’ by definition.

Larimer County inventory is up 39% and Weld County is up 48%.

Months of inventory is up to 2.3 in Larimer County from 1.7 months a year ago.

Weld County is also at 2.3 months today and was only 1.2 months a year ago.

With higher inventory comes more selection for buyers and more importance for sellers to price right.

Fun Facts • March 8, 2024

Normal Timing

by Angie Hoskins

After three years of abnormally low Days on Market, properties today are settling into a more normal and more reasonable length of time on the market.

Days on Market today stands at:

53 Days in Larimer County

66 Days in Weld County

Back in 2021, for example, Days on Market was roughly half of today’s number.

Buyers today are discerning, and proper pricing is more important than ever in order to meet a Seller’s timing goals.

Fun Facts • February 21, 2024

Inventory Jump

by Angie Hoskins

The most significant trend we notice 45 days into the new year is the jump in inventory.

There are many more properties for sale along the Front Range compared to one year ago.

Larimer County is up 40%
Weld County is up 39%
Metro Denver is up 35%

This comes as welcome news for buyers as we near the Spring buying season.

Fun Facts • February 12, 2024

Above Water

by Angie Hoskins

A dynamic that gives us even more confidence about the housing market is the amount of equity that homeowners have in their property.

Equity is of course the difference between the value of the property and the amount that is owed against it.

In Larimer County, 53% of homeowners have at least 50% equity in their homes. In Weld County, the number is 38%.

It is interesting to note that Nationally, only 1.8% of homeowners are ‘underwater,’ meaning that the value is lower than what is owed against the property.

In 2009, 26% of homeowners were underwater.

Fun Facts • February 8, 2024

Forecast Takeaways

by Angie Hoskins

Here are some of the big takeaways from our annual Market Forecast with Economist Matthew Gardner:

Interest rates will continue to trend down during the year and reach 6.08% by the end of 2024.
Home prices will have another year of modest gains increasing 2.0% to 2.5% in Northern Colorado
53% of homeowners in Larimer County and 38% of homeowners in Weld County are “Equity Rich” meaning that they have at least 50% equity in their homes.
Inventory levels will increase in 2024 but will remain below normal which protects prices from any sort of major decline

To receive a copy of the full slide deck from the Forecast, feel free to reach out to us!

Fun Facts • January 23, 2024

More Normal Range

by Angie Hoskins

The length of time that it takes for a property to sell is settling into a more normal range.

“Days on Market” is an insightful statistic that counts how long it takes for a property to go from live on the market to sold.

Today measurement stands at 72 days in Larimer County and 74 days in Weld County.

From January 2021 to November 2022, Days on Market never went above 60. This time period was defined by incredibly high demand and drastically low supply.

The time frame of January 2018 to December 2020, which was more ‘normal,’ had Days on Market between 60 and 90 days.

Fun Facts • January 12, 2024

Out of the Gates

by Angie Hoskins

How is the year starting? All of us in the real estate industry are especially curious to see how 2024 is starting off after the first slow real estate year in a long time.

Rates have settled down and are trending down.

Prices have shown resilience and continue to go up.

But, how about transactions? Are they picking up after a year that saw an 18% decline in the number of closed residential properties?

It turns out the year is starting off strong but not unusually strong.

Pending transactions are up in Larimer County 7% year over year and up 3% in Weld County.

So, we are already seeing signs that 2024 will be a year of growth compared to last year.

Fun Facts • January 10, 2024

No Drop

by Angie Hoskins

The numbers are in and it turns out that not even 8% rates could make prices drop in 2023.

When mortgage rates jumped this last year, many people believed that home values would fall as a result.

The fact that prices stayed flat in 2023 even though interest rates doubled between March 2022 and October 2023, shows that values along the Front Range are incredibly resilient.

Here are the 2023 average prices along the Front Range and their change compared to 2022:

Larimer County: $621,538 / 1%

Weld County: $527,600 / 1%

Metro Denver: $679,710 / 0%

Fun Facts • December 18, 2023

Price Plummet

by Angie Hoskins

For anyone waiting for home prices to drop before making a buying decision, there is good news.

The recent plummet in mortgage rates means that home prices, effectively, just took a big dip.

Rates have gone down by 1% in the last 45 days which means that a prospective home buyer’s payment is 10% less today than what it would have been at the end of October.

For example, the Principal and Interest payment for a $500,000 loan is $341 less today than what it was 45 days ago.

So, from a buyer’s perspective, prices have gone down by 10% in a very short time.